[vladikcomper]

When you coding some stuff for your hack, the debugging process can be absolutely awful. You aren't able to see the result of instructions in the code, generally having just to guess where the mistake is and trying to fix it with trial and error method. If your code is big, it's a real headache. Even being able to see RAM, VRAM, you can't control everything, for example, you can't be sure, if some part of your code works or not, if branch command branch or didn't work because of some issues.

So I've got a mad idea of creating a tool, that could make debugging process easier, basically, thought the ability to show the result of operations. But eventually, I went deeper, and created... SANDBOX!

SANDBOX is my first program for Sega Genesis, it's a powerful tool to test and debug your code, which even can be used to learn assembly language and how M68k processor works.

The idea is very simple - you write ASM-code, include it into SANDBOX (including process is automatized), run it in emulator and SANDBOX will provide you abilities to see RAM space, registers etc. But the main thing here is... extra commands! (actually macros)

There is OUT command to output any kind of data, PAUSE command to pause program at any point and some others.

Let's have a real example.
Imagine that you don't know, what BCC does, and want to figure this out, so you can write a program:

Syntax Highlighted Code: ASM

	move.w	#$10,d0
	cmpi.w	#$20,d0
	bcc.s	BCCWorks
	out	"BCC didn't work!"
	rts
 
BCCWorks:
	out	'BCC worked!'
	rts

And when you compile and run it in SANDBOX, you'll see the result:



Yeah, you can preview source code in SANDBOX itself!
BCC didn't work? Try another value, experimenting!

There are some sample programs, that will learn you how to do some useful things about your code (and yes, BCC example is there, but more completed and advanced, so you might wanna check it out)

You just put ASM-files in a specific folder, and any files there will be compiled and included into SANDBOX, letting you run several programs:



I guess just outputting text isn't enough for good debugging, so there are commands to output numeric values, example:

Syntax Highlighted Code: ASM

 
	move.b	#$F0,d0		; let's put $F0 to d0 and see it in different modes!
	outb	d0		; see as Unsigned Hexadecimal
	break
	outb	d0,signed	; see as Signed Hexadecimal
	break
	outb	d0,dec		; see as Unsigned Decimal
	break
	outb	d0,dec+signed	; see as Signed Decimal
	break
	outb	d0,bin		; see as Unsigned Binary
	break
	outb	d0,bin+signed	; see as Signed Binary
 
	pause
 
	move.w	#$1020,d0
	outw	d0		; see as Unsigned Hexadecimal word
	break
	outw	d0,signed	; see as Signed Hexadecimal word
	break
	outb	d0		; see as byte
 
	pause
 
	move.l	#-$1,d0
	outl	d0		; see as unsigned
	break
	outl	d0,signed	; see as signed
	break
	outl	d0,trim+signed	; see as signed with triming!
 
	rts
 

Result of running it:



Also, filling RAM example:




SANDBOX now is in beta state, there can be some bugs, Source code viewing doesn't work properly. If you notice any unexpected crashes, glitches, please report.

Don't forget to read readme.htm.

Download

Secret message for Russian hackers: На ЦИСе выложу чуть позже, потерпите. =Ъ

This post has been edited by vladikcomper: 04 November 2010 - 05:35 PM

[Selbi]

I had an awesome time testing this, most likley because it's just awesome. If you wouldn't already have that green banner, you would get it now.

On ICQ I said that "signed" and "trim" aren't good words to choose, so I'm asking the comunity: Are there words that would fit better?


Oh and I noticed a little issue about line breaks in the Code View:



How did I not see this the first time?

This post has been edited by Selbi: 04 November 2010 - 03:48 PM

[vladikcomper]

Oh and I noticed a little issue about line breaks in the Code View:



How did I not see this the first time?

Because in the version I gave you, code view didn't worked at all, having just static text instead. =P

Well, line breaks would be rather hard to do in ASM, though I'm planing to parse text before compilation, in fact I'm doing it even now, but its algorithm is very stupid.

This post has been edited by vladikcomper: 04 November 2010 - 03:52 PM

[NeKit]

Unfortunately, I'm not a hacker, but still hope it will really make things for all easier.

I was really surprised at how "Code View" works. First I thought that it somehow dissassembles code at runtime, but really, as vladikcomper told, text representation is embedded during the build of ROM.

And here is another secret message, this time for author: Отличная работа!

This post has been edited by NeKit: 04 November 2010 - 03:55 PM

[vladikcomper]

A very little update (actually done some hours ago):
- Fixed few misprints in readme.htm, but some grammar there is bad I think, and unfortunately I can't fix due to my poor English.
I would appreciate any help in fixing text in this file.
- Russian version of readme.htm added.
- Build.bat fixed a bit. I've forgot to remove the line that copies ROM-file to folder with my Sega emulator. Now it's commented out.
By the way, you can uncomment it (delete "rem") and replace path in quotes with your own path. It's very useful in case you like to keep yous ROMs in a single folder.

Download link is the same.

This post has been edited by vladikcomper: 05 November 2010 - 01:10 PM